Evolution of a Warriors Fan

I remember
last June, I stood at the Richmond station waiting for BART to take me to
Oracle so I could watch my Golden State Warriors play in game 1 of the NBA
Finals. So I could watch my Golden State Warriors play in Game 1 of the NBA
Finals. Did you read that correctly? Yes, you did, but one more time for
dramatic effect: So I could watch my Golden State Warriors play in Game 1 of
the NBA Finals. I was decked out in Warriors gear, as was everyone around me.
The excitement in the air was palpable, and this wasn’t even at the stadium,
this was just a BART station in freaking Richmond. Nobody could really believe
we were here, that this was really happening. The Warriors? Could they really
be this good? Or would it all come crumbling down? Fate was good to the Bay on
that day...They won game 1, and then they won three out of the next five. Now they’re
reigning NBA champions.

Almost a
year later, the Warriors sit at 68-7 atop the Western Conference yet again.
Nobody in their right mind can deny that Curry is one of the most offensively
potent player of all time, and he’s leading a versatile, unselfish, disciplined
roster that’s favored against any opponent. At times, the Warrior’s dominance
feels like it might be unavoidable and inevitable. Maybe the fans of this
downtrodden franchise can embrace the fact that this is the best team in the
NBA and the envy of the league. Now that the Warriors have gone 150-28 in the
last two seasons, including the playoffs, it finally seems like Warriors fans
can not only accept the winning, but can expect it.

But I hope
we don’t.

Last night I was crouched around the TV with
some friends, watching the Warriors play a game too close for comfort against
the Jazz. They were down by double digits for a while, and the gap closed only
at a snail’s pace. Suddenly, there were only 2 minutes to go and the game was
only tied. Curry and co. hadn’t summoned that blitzing run I had grown so
accustomed to. This game was still yet to be decided. With the clock ticking
on, Curry missed a three, and Hayward hit one in return. I was nervous,
officially now. We had records to chase, and glory to achieve. The Jazz
couldn’t get in the way of that! Not now.

Of course,
the Warriors did what these Warriors have done so excessively well. They made
great plays just in the nick of time. Klay got two open looks from three to tie
the game with only seconds left, and he wasn’t going to miss them both. As he
finally hit the shot, I leapt out of my chair, inadvertently stomped on the
foot of the poor soul next to me, pumped my fist into the air, and shouted
something entirely unintelligible. To overtime we went! And there was no doubt
in my mind that Overtime was Warriors time.

Once the
game was over, and I had finally collected my thoughts and cleaned myself up, I
started to think about the moment that Klay tied the game. I played it over
again in my head. I was thinking specifically about my reaction. What had I
been cheering for when that shot went in? Was I rooting for a Warriors’ win? Or
was I rooting against a loss??

I remember
standing at that BART station last year for a reason. A man even more decked
out than I came up to me at the side of the track and said, “This is great,
isn’t it?” I agreed that it was. It was so great that two strangers at a BART
station just had to talk about it. Then he asked, “So, will you be disappointed
at this point if we lose?”

What a
question that was. The Warriors were favored to knock off Lebron James and be
the 2015 NBA champions. They were only four games away. If they blew this
opportunity...well of course I should be disappointed! But somehow that’s not
what came out of my mouth. Instead I said, “Nope. No way. This season has been
too great to be disappointed.”

The man
thought about that for a moment, and then nodded. “Yup, you’re right. What a
ride this has been.” And the conversation ended there. Because we were Warriors
fans. We had been through far too much to take anything for granted, or to take
anything away from our Western Conference Champions. The lowlights of being a Warriors fan for the last twenty years are well documented. Everyone knows that
Latrell Sprewell was our last All-Star before David Lee, before he choked out
our coach. Everyone remembers losing Gilbert Arenas, the most exciting Warrior
in forever, and watching him blossom into Agent Zero. We are all aware that
Chris Cohan was a cheap and disengaged owner, as bad as any in professional
sports. In 17 years from 1995-2012, the Warriors averaged 30 wins a season, and
made the playoffs one time. Everything the Warriors had done in my lifetime
absolutely paled in comparison to what 2015 Warriors accomplished. Hosting a
Finals game was more than the old me could ever ask for.

Now
though... I wonder what I will say if the Warriors make their way back to
Finals, with the greatest regular season record of all time. Before game 1,
some stranger might ask if I’ll be disappointed, if the Warriors lose. I hope
my answer is the same as it was before. I hope I say “Of course not! Not after
everything this team has accomplished!” But I worry I won’t say that. Now, two
seasons into this impossibly compelling and likable iteration of the Golden
State Warriors, I worry I may have come to expect greatness. And that feels
like a thoroughly sinful thing for a Warriors fan to expect. I’m writing this
article to remind myself how far this team has come, so I don’t expect a thing.
So I just enjoy the ride.

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